To ask if your child’s teacher has tested positive what action did you take?

[Reesewithaspoon]

D’s (15) has just been informed that his form teacher has tested positive over the weekend.
Just had an email to confirm which states that the teacher, a student teacher and only 3 students (have no idea why just 3) have been asked to self isolate so the rest (including my son) are to stay in school.
This is the first time with either of my dc that we have had this (both in secondary school) so not sure of the protocol, do they not self isolate the whole class?
Ds suffers from terrible anxiety and we have had lots of problems over the last 3 years. However, after counselling and medication we have been back on track for a while but he is constantly texting me this morning in a complete state saying he has been very close to this teacher last week.
I also care for my mum who is clinically vulnerable so am quite concerned.
Has anyone been in this position? Did your child still continue to go to school even when their teacher had tested positive?
Im not sure what to do for the best.

Teacher gets covid - child has to isolate.
It doesn't work the other way round.
If a child who was sitting at the front of the class gets covid the teacher isn't allowed to isolate. They have to stay 2 meters away from the front row which magically stops the teacher being infected by any virus circulating in the air.

@Tyzz

Teacher gets covid - child has to isolate. It doesn't work the other way round. If a child who was sitting at the front of the class gets covid the teacher isn't allowed to isolate. They have to stay 2 meters away from the front row which magically stops the teacher being infected by any virus circulating in the air.

One of my daughters teachers is isolating after a positive case in one of his classes

How do you know so much information about the teacher? The school shouldn’t be sharing their partner’s work etc etc...

Why are you sending your child to school where they will be exposed to covid if you are caring for your mother? There is no way at all that your child’s school isn’t going to be a source of covid transmission so the onus is on you to take steps to prevent your mother being exposed, not the teacher being banned from their job.

@Reesewithaspoon

What do you think should happen instead? You can’t sack every teacher living with someone who works with covid patients

Of course not but as parents we should have the right to make informed choices for our children and our families and if someone is teaching our children who’s partners work directly with Covid patients we should be informed of this. It now means that I am having to get cover for care for my elderly Alzheimer’s mum who also has blood cancer, I can not put her at risk and have been doing everything possible to avoid as much contact with people so I can care for her.
And if you are married or living with someone working directly with Covid patients and you work with lots of other people (Ie in a school or college etc) then you should isolate from that person to risk contamination, and the fact that this teacher had been teaching all last week and tested positive at the weekend then she has put a lot of people at risk.

I’ve seen people blame teachers for ridiculous things in my time, but this takes the fucking biscuit actually. You can catch Covid from anyone at any time, therefore it’s irrelevant that the teachers partner works with Covid patients and it just seems like yet another excuse to bash teachers.

Wow - you think you should be informed about the personal situations of members of school staff and their family members? That's completely unreasonable.

To be fair it’s harder to catch in Icu than us on normal medical wards as a lot of us are just on basic ppe. It’s enhanced ppe in critical care so he was very unlucky. Anyone catch covid anywhere where someone is positive!

Thousands of teachers are in touch with children that are likely positive across the
Country in a small room with apparent social distancing. Many schools are struggling to Staff due to it spreading. Your child is at risk of catching covid at school every day from their peers that doubtfully they distance from surely you can see that?

Lots of us care for vulnerable people. No one should of been told how she caught it either. That’s personal.

@TheWristBoundLatexBitch is that secondary? Because my DD is a secondary teacher. A 17 year old child tested positive last week who sat in DDs class for five hours at the front. DD is not allowed to self isolate because the school insist she goes to work.

@Reesewithaspoon

I’m so annoyed that a teacher who’s partner works every day with Covid patients is allowed to work directly with kids.

Sorry, but you are being ridiculous. Life needs to go on. Tbh I am surprised you have not made alternative arrangements for your parents given that you have a child in secondary. Are you only just now aware of how unprotected and vulnerable secondary school teachers and children are?

You realise that many children will have parents who work with covid patients too - nurses, doctors, health care assistants, porters, etc. Should they not be allowed to attend school either? Or should they be distancing from their parents? Or is it only teachers you are expecting to give up their jobs or relationships in schools?

You know that children in your child's class are likely to have parents who work in healthcare with Covid patients, right?

You know that secondary schools are driving transmission?

I'm sorry this has been a shock, but to suggest two people who are both doing pretty stressful jobs right now should have the added stress of isolating from each other at home is ridiculous.

If you are this concerned about the risk of your son being exposed (and I do understand why), then you are going to have to keep him off school- schools are not a safe place right now.

In my year group, we have have 6/7 children whose parents work on wards most likely containing covid patients in the local hospital.

Should those children all be living away from their parents as well?!

I've had 3 classes with positive cases and I've never been told to isolate. Your attitude is awful expecting the teacher not to teach because of their partner's job.

"And if you are married or living with someone working directly with Covid patients and you work with lots of other people (Ie in a school or college etc) then you should isolate from that person to risk contamination, and the fact that this teacher had been teaching all last week and tested positive at the weekend then she has put a lot of people at risk"

So you are angry that your child is at risk? Not sure why you haven't realised this before!

The teacher likely did not know they had the virus and does not need to isolate until they either have symptoms themselves or the partner tests positive.

The government guidance makes no allowance for teachers working with people at high risk of infection s d to be frank the personal lives of their staff is none of their business.

The departmrnt of health has claimed today that schools are as safe as possible and are not a driver of infection in the community

Working at a school with a third of staff off with covid I can tell you that staff are dropping like flies in some schools. Here's some examples of the kind of thing that is happening to make your child and staff at schools safe.

1)Seating plans used for contact tracing. No allowance or checking whether the teacher desk or other pupils are within 2m. Why bother when you can just send home kids that sit either side. I suppose it is easier than going around the classrooms especially if it needs doing 4/5 a day on the worst days.

It being automatically assumed that the teacher is always 2m away even though you have to stand at the door to hand out sanitiser. You can of course go see some one if you have not followed the guidance.

Kids bring sent in tested by weekly survey and then testing positive but being in school for 8 days before the results came through. Contacts were only sent home if they were in contact 2 days prior to the survey test being taken. Apparently the days he was in and infected don't count and since it was 10 days since the test was taken they only had to isolate for 2 days and the weekend.

Kids coming in to school with coughs and no smell then having to be sent home.

@Reesewithaspoon

I’m so annoyed that a teacher who’s partner works every day with Covid patients is allowed to work directly with kids.

Whilst this is a tricky situation for you personally this is a very unreasonable comment.

They have every right to go to work. Surely the partner who is working with the patients has appropriate PPE. You don't know that they didn't catch it from a colleague.

Anyway either way the teacher is well within their rights to work

@Honeybobbin

Good lord, just when you thought they couldn't think up any new ways to bash teachers

Exactly what I thought. Leave us alone seriously!!

You do realise we are coming into work every day to risk being with YOUR children right ? Your children who may well give US covid? You do realise that yes? That we are willingly coming into work to teach hundreds of kids??????

Teachers partner was unlucky but could have caught it at Tesco

You are overreacting

If you don't like it, home educate.

Ridiculous posts

So you don't want to be separated from your mother but you expect the teacher to live separately from their family. I'm sorry but I agree with the previous poster, that is extremely selfish

Absolutely agree that your child's teacher is possibly more exposed to Covid than someone working with Covid patients in ITU, for one there is stringent infection control measures and PPE on ITU, more PPE than in a general Covid ward and a lot more than in a school.

Not really on to criticise on that basis anyway, what can the school do about that?

I wouldn't be unreasonable to keep your child off for 14 days if you feel necessary, it's not one size fits all really and everyone has different circumstances at home.

I'm fuming actually and I very rarely get seriously annoyed by teaching threads.

We seem to be able to do no right quite a lot of the time and this is just taking the piss!

I suggest OP that you read some of the teaching threads where teachers are saying how worried they are. No I am not worried I'm happy to take the risk but the risk is absolutely massive that we take. Day in day out and it's only getting worse

Please read the threads and see what the situation is in schools before you start threads like this.

This happened to my friend's kid and all the class is off for two weeks

You can catch Covid from anyone at any time, therefore it’s irrelevant that the teachers partner works with Covid patients and it just seems like yet another excuse to bash teachers.

Hear hear.

What about children of nurses and care assistants working on covid wards? Should they be banned from going to school?

Why don't we just make all teachers sleep at the school so they don't have any contact with anyone ever.

@PurpleDaisies

I have seen social media comments where parents were kicking off because a child in their child's class has a parent who is an A and E doctor so this child was seen as a danger